Clive Phillips is Professor of Animal Welfare at the University of Queensland where he established the Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics. The Centre researches the welfare of animals in farming, zoos and animal shelters, as well as the ethics of animal use. He has a PhD in dairy cattle nutrition and behaviour from the University of Glasgow. He has held teaching positions at the University of Wales, Bangor, and the University of Cambridge’s veterinary department.

He advises State and Federal government on animal welfare strategies in Australia and works with animal protection organisations. From an early age, he had a keen interest in the natural world. His book, The Animal Trade, is an important contribution to our understanding of the global challenges that animal advocates face throughout the world.

Philip: You describe the growth of the animal trade as bringing ‘serious concerns for the welfare and ethical treatment of animals, with additional risks created by disease transmission and loss of biodiversity.’ (p. vii) How would you summarise the present worldwide trade in animals? How many animals are traded each year throughout the world? How are they used? What are the risks to human disease?

Clive: The trade in meat and some milk products has increased steadily over the last 50 years and particularly rapidly in the last decade. This is because of rapidly growing demand, following population expansion and increased prosperity in areas where meat was traditionally only eaten in small amounts (e.g., Asia), and the relaxation of trade barriers. Whilst meat production has grown by between 1 and 3 per cent per year, depending on species, the international trade in meat has increased at about 5 per cent. Over the last 50 years the number of meat animals exported annually has increased from 3 to 37 million for pigs, 6 to 15 million for sheep, 5 to 10 million cattle, and 0.8 to 1.4 million for chickens.

It was estimated in 2005 that meat production would have to increase by 135 per cent by 2050. Most of this growth is expected to be in developing countries using intensive production systems of chicken and pig production. The increased human demand for meat will be accompanied by some reduction in demand for staple products (e.g., rice). Meat products require a much greater input of energy, water and land than staple foodstuffs, leading to concerns that there will be inadequate land for the latter.

The expanding trade in live animals increases the spread of animal diseases around the world, some of which can also infect humans (e.g., the influenza virus). Foot and mouth disease, ticks and parasites are also spread by the trade. Trade in meat and animals ground up to feed other animals also spreads deadly diseases to humans, such as the bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease of the 1980’s.

Philip: Which specific area of animal use gives you the greatest concern and why?

Clive: After fish (160 million t/year) and pork (109 million t/year), chicken production is one of the major meats consumed (106 million t/year) and it is the fastest growing. Chicken production has arguably the worst record on animal welfare grounds. In terms of efficiency, it greatly surpasses cattle (106 million t/year) and pig production, but unlike much cattle and sheep production it uses feed that could otherwise be used for humans. Meat chickens are grown in vast sheds with no opportunity for natural behaviour, in large groups of animals that now have inherent disease problems due to genetic selection for very fast growth.

Fish farming currently constitutes about half the fish eaten worldwide, but this is growing as we exhaust the ocean’s supplies. Welfare problems are just as real as with the intensive poultry and pig industries but have largely gone unnoticed, until recently. We now know that fish feel pain and have many of the same concerns as land-based production systems, including over-stocking, inhumane transport and slaughter, aggression between animals, genetic deformities and pollution of their environment.

Dairy cows have also long been assumed to have a good welfare because of their access to pasture. But genetic selection to produce huge quantities of milk has pushed dairy cows to their physiological limits. They readily suffer from a multitude of diseases, especially udder infections and lameness. Instead of lasting the normal 25 years that most bovines do in the wild, the modern dairy cow on average dies at about four years of age, culled from her herd because she is sick or fails to reproduce, an annual necessity for the continued output of milk. In many countries all her male calves will be killed at just a few days of age. They do not grow fast enough and do not have enough muscle for today’s beef market.

The Global Challenge to the Worldwide Trade in Animals